


homemade dynamite

by icedmachinery, icemachine



Category: Doom Patrol (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Gay Male Character, Gen, general idc about the comics warning, the backstory is changed quite a bit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:02:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25157452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icedmachinery/pseuds/icedmachinery, https://archiveofourown.org/users/icemachine/pseuds/icemachine
Summary: Keeg doesn’t really give a fuck about monstrousness.Larry was worthy, once. In the negative space, in his home—-a healer.(Keeg and Larry, reversed.)
Relationships: Keeg Bovo & Larry Trainor, Keeg Bovo/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	1. prologue i

**Author's Note:**

> tw: child death

The year is 1942. The air bites against the wholeness of Keeg Bovo’s skin, which, currently, in this moment, holds no resentment, has not been violated—-the air that is the fire blazing in front of him, however, violates everything, turns the world on its own & turns Keeg into something monstrous.

The issue is that Keeg doesn’t really give a fuck about monstrousness.

He throws the gasoline can, takes James’ hand, and together they run off into the sunset; it would be a beautiful, picturesque moment if they had not just set a man’s house on fire.

James ducks behind a bush and Keeg follows—-he always follows, relentless. It’s the perfect position to watch the destruction of their creation; life’s circle, something has to end for another to begin, and the reflection of the orange flames in James’ eyes is simply  _ godlike,  _ divine. 

“That’ll teach him,” James says, kisses him passionviolent. “Not all of us are going to sit here and  _ let  _ people call us slurs.”

“We fight back,” Keeg agrees. “That… is what I love about you.”

The man had vomited violent language at Keeg when he approached them, walking on the street together, hands a bit  _ too  _ close for his own comfort. It angered James, who then decided to follow him—

“Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” James asks. The unspoken: it’s nothing, kiss me again,  _ it’s nothing. _

“It sounds like a truck.”

“So?”

Keeg wonders for a moment—- _ there wasn’t someone in there, right?---- _ but ultimately decides that James is right, even without his words; it’s nothing, none of this matters, the only thing that matters is Keeg and  _ love. _

“Nevermind.”

James pats his back. He gestures towards the fire. “It’s beautiful.”

Keeg agrees. “It is, it’s so—-”

“ _ Help. Help, is anyone—” _

Keeg stands up, immediate, turns toward the sound; a small girl carrying an infant has exited the home, and her words have devolved into mere screaming.

“No one was supposed to be home,” Keeg says. He runs to the girl, takes the infant from her arms, breathes  _ no, no, fuck, God, no  _ on repeat.

“What—-what are you—-they’ll find out, get back h—”

James’ words fade and clutter into something unrecognizable as Keeg notices that the baby isn’t breathing.

“Please help him,” the girl says; she’s still screaming.

“I---I don’t know how to—- but James does—-”

When Keeg turns back—

James is—-

He’s  _ gone—- _

  
  
  
  


_ … _

_ …. _

_ ….. _

_ …… _

_ ……. _

Keeg jolts awake, hits his head on the bed above him, exhales, inhales, exhales. He sinks back down onto his bed, tries to close his eyes, but the image of the child—--

it lives behind his eyelids, lives etched into his mind—-

“If you keep doin’ that,” says the voice of the man sleeping above him, “you’re gonna get a concussion.”

_ Would that make the nightmares go away? _

“Yeah,” Keeg responds. “Probably.”

“Will you two shut the fuck up and go to bed?” This is the voice of soldier Jacobs, who looks at Keeg in the wrong way, as if he  _ knows  _ the secrets of Keeg’s bones, the horrors of his mind. “Your stupid space mission doesn’t give you an excuse to keep us up, you know, Keegan.”

That isn’t his  _ name,  _ but it doesn’t matter. Jacobs is right.

He’s not even sure if he wants to go through with the Mercury mission. He could die tomorrow, he could discover wonderful things, he could die—- _ he deserves that,  _ however,  _ because—- _

Because—

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Larry was worthy, once. In the negative space, in his home—-a healer, clothed in purpose. A being capable of good.

Here, above this planet—-he doesn’t know what he is now.

  
  
  



	2. prologue ii

They time their meet-ups to the 4 o’clock Tulsa train. It’s always uncomfortable, having your kissing interrupted by the shattering, fast noises of the vehicle, but no one can see them here, and that’s all that matters; privacy, hiding, secrecy.

Keeg understands William’s fear, but on occasion, it can get a bit —  _ overwhelming.  _

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want you to go,” William says, directly into Keeg’s exposed collarbones, and Keeg shivers at the words, feels the conflict inside of him flip and boil. “You could—-”

“I know,” Keeg says. “I could die.” He pauses. “I could get hurt… but I could also make it and come home just fine.”

William laughs, his breath hot. “True.”

Keeg falls again, knows only falling. The sky’s lack of distinct color  _ taunts him.  _ Gray, blue—-William Delaney’s arm draped over his chest in the back of an olive green pickup truck—-the sky blue, like energy, he decides, and thinks back to  _ why  _ he wants this. 

He has to redeem himself. Joining the air force was his attempt at grasping redemption. It sickens him now—-he’s seen things—-

He says: “You know I have to do this.”

“No,” William protests, sitting up. “I don’t, actually. You keep saying that, but you never told me  _ why  _ you have to go to space and risk dying.”

It’s the truth. Keeg hasn’t been an honest man since the last fire he set. He hasn’t been a man at all.

“Because….”

“You know you can tell me anything.”

Keeg forces a smile. “There’s nothing to tell,” he says. “I just feel like it’s my duty.”

“Your duty?” William asks; he sounds mad, sounds like he’s letting himself break. “Your duty is to keep yourself safe---for us—-”

“For us? You mean the ‘us’ that you’re hiding from the world?”

“Fuck you,” William spits. “You know I can’t. I’m the only one of us who actually has something to lose.”

“We all have secrets,” Keeg tells him. He walks out into the dirt road, does not look behind him. “Launch is in eight hours. We should be getting ready.”


	3. prologue iii

It occurs to Keeg as he is being strapped into the jet that he doesn’t actually have anyone to say goodbye to. In the case of his death, of course. He had William—-

but he has a feeling now that William, his beautiful mechanic, does not want to hear what he should have said, which is:  _ I love you. I’ll be fine. I might not be fine, but I still love you. That is what matters. Carry it with you. _

Keeg is not good with words, though. He spoke his first word at age six; he prefers to show his love in actions, and risking his life doesn’t portray the correct emotion.

William is right.

There is no turning back now; they’re launching. Time is both slowing down and speeding up—-Keeg feels intoxicated. He has to focus. He’s been preparing for this. He is prepared for anything. He is prepared for everything.

He tries to force himself out of his own body and into the moment. When his jet is released and he’s plunged into the atmosphere—

he thinks—

_ I’m free. _

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Larry Trainor is lost. He moves through the vastness of space, flickering—--but remains above the planet. He doesn’t know why. He could go anywhere, visit anything, yet he remains  _ stuck  _ here, mesmerized by what lies beneath… it’s sickening, he’s  _ allowed himself--- _

There is a shuttlecraft in the distance. It is primitive. And it is moving toward him at an unrecognizable speed, which makes something inside him flutter like light; Larry has never seen anything from the planet below, and this has been given to him like a gift. He moves closer to it, gazes at it in wonder.

There is a being inside of it. Its hair is white, its eyes strike an unbearable shade of blue---and Larry only knows this because he’s so close--- _ how does he know what these attributes are, how to describe _ —--oh—-oh  _ no—-he’s too close—-he wanted this—- _

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


In front of Larry Trainor there is a door. He has a humanoid form now. Previously he was abstract energy---now he knows what humanity is, now he looks like this man—-this man who isn’t a man—-this Keeg Bovo who he—-cannot—-climb out of.

He opens the door and is confronted by fire, violent fire, the kind of fire that destroys like creating. It is both his surroundings and an omnipresent figure inside of Keeg’s mind.

And Larry cannot get  _ out. _

  
  
  
  
  
  


The last thing that Keeg hears before his fall, before he is sent out of the heavens by an angry God, is William’s voice in his ear. Begging. Again.  _ I knew this would happen. Keeg? Keeg? Keeg? Are you—- _

The first thing Keeg sees as a new being is William’s hands putting out the fire that is now his entire body—-his entire composition, who he  _ truly  _ is—-with a blanket.

Is this freedom?

**Author's Note:**

> i'm @keegbovo on tumblr!


End file.
